Ethan
by lizoftheinfinite
Summary: Bering explained to Cain several times how Abel – his Abel, the real Abel, and oh Christ he still doesn't know his real name- is perfectly safe. How even though he's been captured by Colterons, it's all part of the plan. That Cain shouldn't worry, that Cain can return to his regular duties. That they'll get Abel back eventually. Eventually.


**In case there is any confusion, this story is only a oneshot.**

**Edit: I'M CRYING OVER HERE. I'M REALLY GLAD YOU GUYS WANT ME TO UPDATE. BUT. PLEASE. LET ME REPEAT FOR EMPHASIS. THIS IS A ONESHOT. **

* * *

The new Abel tells Cain his real name on the first night they spend together in a the cramped, metal room of the Sleipnir.

"I'm Daniel," he says. "I know we could get in trouble if we go by anything other than our task names, but if you want, you can call me that in private."

Cain punches him in the gut and tells the little bitch to never to talk to him again.

Their room turns to freezing at about midnight, the way it usually does when the Sleipnir drifts through deep space. Usually, Cain wards it off by curling up around Abel and tucking his chin over his shoulder. Tonight, he moves the mattresses back to their usual position, takes the top bunk and both the blankets. The imposter shivers the entire night, his chattering teeth keeping Cain awake, and Cain thinks, viciously, that he somehow deserves it.

* * *

Bering explained to him several times how Abel – _his Abel, the real Abel, and oh Christ he still doesn't know his real name_- is perfectly safe. How even though he's been captured by Colterons, it's all part of the plan. That Cain shouldn't worry, that Abel has awakened and Cain can return to his regular duties. That they'll get Abel back eventually. Eventually.

It's all part of the plan.

He's perfectly safe.

* * *

Cain doesn't mean to start caring, not at all, and he _doesn't_, he really doesn't. So when he approaches Deimos, it's out of boredom, really. A desire to learn something new.

Ethos fucking adores Deimos, to the point that Cain is half-considering killing Praxis and Porthos so the two of them can be reassigned to each other. Deimos, for his part, sees Ethos as a tool he's been given, and when Cain asks for (_doesn't ask for help, Cain doesn't ask anyone for help) _he arranges a meeting between Cain and Ethos on the Reliant.

"You do realize, um, this is highly illegal." Ethos shifts uncomfortably outside the Reliant while Cain patiently waits for him to grow some balls and climb the fuck in. "Like, we-could-get-thrown-in-the-brig-until-the-fighting 's-over illegal."

Cain waits.

Ethos sighs. "But I miss him, too. And it's better than doing nothing."

So they both huddle inside the navigator's station of the Reliant and Ethos shows Cain how to work the controls. What the various buttons and levers mean.

"I'll be able to navigate?" Cain asks midway through the lesson.

"You'll be able to _fly _it. I haven't even begun to show you anything about navigating. Coordinating. Figuring out where you are." Ethos bites his lip. It's hot and cramped with two people at the navigator's station, and Cain can feel both their heartbeats pounding in his head.

"Even if I _show _you everything – it still won't be the same. When we receive our training, we take the ship out in space to practice real-life situations. I can't explain what it's like but piloting the ship is unlike flying anything else. Without the ability to skillfully maneuver, you could be easily picked off by Col-"

"I don't need to be good," Cain growls. "I just need to be _adequate_. Enough to get through Colteron territory without being creamed. Enough to get the real Abel and bring him back."

Ethos' face closes up.

"To do that," he says, "you'd have to be the best. You'd have to be _Abel_."

* * *

"Are you okay?"

Cain pushes his face into the pillow and closes his eyes.

"Fuck off."

"If you're okay, I'd like my blanket back, please."

"I said fuck off!" Cain sits upright and promptly bangs his head on the ceiling of their cramped room. He growls and rubs his forehead. The fake Abel gives a little laugh then disguises it with a cough.

"It's okay if you're feeling . . . upset," the imposter says after a few seconds. "I understand. You two were." He coughs. "Very close."

Cain says nothing. He hates this sniveling, pasty-skinned navigator. They are both blond, and small, and stubborn, but there is nothing of his Abel in him.

"It's going to be okay. I'm not as good as him, but I'm one of the best, too. I'll be good enough to waste 'Terons. It's going to be okay. I know I'm just a replacement-"

"Do you want to get punched again?" Cain asks.

* * *

The broadcast comes in just as everyone's eating breakfast. A hologram flickers over their heads, and then the Colterons are talking, yelling at the camera.

Everyone drops their food and snaps to attention. Someone yells to cut the broadcast, that they don't negotiate with 'Terons, but it keeps on coming. Cain's not good at understand the Colteron's language without a translator, but he can figure out the intent of the shouting, grunting noises by the way they gesture at Abel's bruised form behind them.

Thick, vinelike chains wrap Abel's hands behind his body, his knees to his chest. They've stripped him out of his navigator uniform and down to his underwear, to better expose the wounds that rope over his torso and scratch up his face. His nose is broken, his mouth gagged, both eyes closed with maiming wounds over the right one. He doesn't look up even as they gesture at him, and the only indication that he's alive comes from the shallow rise and fall of his chest, the inhale emphasizing his hollow chest and protruding ribcage.

Bering turns the transmission off.

"We don't negotiate with Colterons," he says, as the mess hall explodes into whispers. But Cain hears the other reason Bering ignored the Colteron's demands for territory in exchange for the hostage.

_Abel will be fine on his own_, he's saying, even though it's very clear the Colterons are planning on killing him before he can finish "awakening."

* * *

"I don't know if it you can do it." Ethos pushes his hair out of his eyes. "I don't know if you can fly without at least _practice_. It takes years and _years,_ Cain. And it's highly illegal and you might get shot down if you even try to leave-"

"Shut up." Cain says, struggling over the controls, trying to coordinate them in the sequence that Ethos gave him. "I can do this. I don't need-"

"You can't do it on your own," Ethos says. "Even if you _could _learn to fly it, you'd still need to be able to shoot back at the Colterons who'd attack you once you got into deep space – this is _crazy, _Cain, you can't do this-"

"Shut up!"

He whirls, fists raised. The action in the cramped navigation station in the Reliant makes him jerk the controls, and even though the power's down the whole ship groans."

"Shut up," he says softly.

"You can't do it on your own," Ethos says.

_So help me_, he wants to say, but he can't. Because he doesn't need anyone. He never has. And Ethos is too afraid of the consequences to offer without being prompted.

"I can teach myself," he snarls, and shoves Ethos from the Reliant to practice on his own.

* * *

Which was a fucking stupid idea, because he doesn't get _anywhere,_ and Ethos is right, he needs training experience in the field and-

He doesn't get back to the room until late, and he's bleary eyed but unable to sleep, so he just sits straight up in his bed on the top bunk and stares at the far wall.

"Cain?" the imposter asks.

"What did I fucken say?" Cain snarls in return.

"Cain," the imposter says.

Cain tips his head back against the wall and sighs.

"I saw. Today," the imposter says. "I saw the transmission. And. I'm sorry."

"I don't need your fucken pity."

"Shut up," the imposter rattles out. "Shut up. _Shut up_. I said I'm sorry. Now- now you fucking listen to me, okay?"

Cain breathes out, then in. The imposter must take his silence as affirmation to go on.

"I'm not brave, like him. We all knew what he was like, since he first rescued the Tiberius- " The imposter swallows. "We all knew he was the best of us. And I'm not like him. I'm nothing like him. But I want to – I've heard rumors of what Ethos teaching you. I know what you're planning to do. If you would be willing to be my fighter, just this once, then I'll be your navigator, just this once."

Cain knows what the imposter is offering, and is overcome with a wave of hatred intense enough to make him shake. He climbs out of his bunk, leaves the room, ignoring the imposter's continued whispers of _Cain_? and goes to sleep in the Reliant.

* * *

He curls up in the navigator's station, trying to smell Abel but mostly just getting himself and Ethos.

He has sex dreams, mostly. Dreams of just holding him. Dreams of him dying. Dreams so intense they wake him up, fevered and breathless and sobbing, fucking sobbing from being unable to cope, because _Abel's not here, he's not here, that's some other fuck sleeping in our room and wearing his name-_

But he drifts in and out of consciousness, yanked from one dream to another. He dreams of telling Abel his real name. And as Abel opens his mouth to respond in turn, the dream shifts again to another one of Abel dying.

And when Cain wakes, he knows what he has to do.

* * *

Bering stops him on his way back to the room, of course, because his fucking life.

"Cain," he says, his fingers curling into the shoulder of Cain's fighter uniform. "I've been hearing rumors."

Cain shrugs. "That's nice."

"Don't take me for an idiot," Bering snaps. "I know what you're trying to do. He'll be fine. You know that. He'll Awaken and he'll bring about our victory. There's no need to worry about him. You have your orders."

Cain raises his eyebrows.

"You have your goddamn orders," Bering says. "Keep it up and you'll both be thrown in the holding cell until after Abel's back or dead. Understand?

"With all due respect, sir," Cain says, "I'd like you to fuck off."

He shakes free of Bering and stalks down the hall at a casual rate. It'll take Being some time to come up with a reason for Cain's insubordination that'll keep the fleet from figuring out what Bering ordered Cain to do. He'll also have to figure out a way to shut Cain up.

Cain has a while before Bering has someone throw him into the holding cell.

Not that long, though.

He starts to run once he turns the corner.

The fake Abel – _Daniel_ – is curled up on the bottom bunk, and Cain shakes him awake, slaps him a couple of times.

"What is it? _What is it_?" Daniel asks, jerking upright. "Are we under attack?"

"You said you were going to help me?" Cain says quietly.

Daniel goes still, then nods.

"Well. Get your Navigator suit on. We need to get to the Reliant."

Daniel hesitates, then nods again, and smiles in a determined, terrified sort of way, and Cain thinks maybe his Abel and this one aren't so different after all.


End file.
